Permanent storage of the standard Compact Disk or CD, like its predecessor, the recorded phonograph disk is accomplished by placing the disk into a protective container. The CD container is typically a plastic box having a means for holding the CD, and a hinged cover for access. With the cover in the closed position, the case is a rectangular box. The inside of the cover has a slot for holding printed material such as a cover artwork or a booklet describing the contents of the CD or other information or art. The cover includes the entire top surface of the case except for a narrow strip at one side that is perpendicularly oriented relative to the top surface. The cover is hinged to open such that it can swing through an arc of 180 degrees and lay flat open much like a book.
Like the phonograph record, storage devices for a collection of CDs include cabinets, boxes and shelves, shoulder bags, files and all manner of holders. The important parameters involved in the storage of a collection of media such as the CD are compactness, protection and ease of use including finding, retrieval and replacement of a chosen item from the collection. To achieve the first two requirements, storage devices for collections most often are configured with parallel adjacent slots for insertion of the media cases. This form of storage has the great advantages of compactness with high space utility and low cost per stored item. It suffers the drawback of covering the cover art so that it is not visible during a search. The significance of this drawback can be understood if it is realized that to the collection owner, the content of a given disk becomes most closely related to the visual cover art and not to the written title. A second aspect of the inability of collection storage device to display the cover art is the drawback of not being able to enjoy this art for its aesthetic value except when it is removed from the collection. An alternate collection storage device holds the individual CD cases one behind the other much like cards in a file box. In this type of holder one has the opportunity to see the cover artwork of each CD in sequence but not all at the same time.
In summary, the prior art includes a variety of CD collection support or storage devices but none permit display of the artwork or cover designs of the entire collection at the same time, thereby forming a more or less permanent art exhibit. A second drwaback of prior art storage devices is that upon selecting a specific CD for play, the individual case containing the CD must be removed from the collection. This opens the possibility for misplacing the CD case or misfiling it upon returning it to the collection.